Inside Out Blog

Was soooo very delighted to be featured on the INSIDE OUT blog today.

"Remember the love and effort that you used to put into making a mix tape?

Well try translating that into an artwork. Music loving designer Marika Järv has in her 

'Wall of Sound' prints and we're huge fans."

Thanks Inside Out for the ever-so-lovely intro!

And I will admit, I am hugely flattered that despite the mountain of ah-maz-ing things that the
Inside Out team must see each day, my Wall of Sound prints have found a
happy place in a couple of their homes—so yes they really are FANS!   

Anyway, you can read all about my favourite music moments, plus a little bit about the
making of Wall of Sound by clicking here.

Enjoy!

MJx

ShopSmart in the Sunday Telegraph

"Naming every band you've danced to is hard enough, but entwining 500 of them into a record-shaped artwork is on another level altogether. Marika Järv spent five years perfecting the Wall of Sound as a nod to record producer Phil Spector's mixing technique. The result is a mesmerising work that links artists by the first and last letters of their names."

Thanks to Clare Patience from Inside Out for picking Wall of Sound as her "DON'T MISS" product in last weekend's ShopSmart guide in the Sunday Telegraph.

MJx

GQ Men Of The Year 2012

GQ Men of The Year issue is out now—
with WALL of SOUND featured as # 1 on their 'THE HIT LIST'!

"We're loving these limited-edition prints by Marika Järv. Entitled Wall of Sound and named after the production technique pioneered by legendary music producer Phil Spector (crazy hair, murder conviction), they feature the names of over 500 musicians arranged in a spiral like the grooves of a record. They're a subtle way to add an arty touch to your walls, though what we like most is Järv's attention to detail. In black, gold or clear—only 100 of each are available, so get in quick."

Thanks for the nice words GQ—

oh and thanks for putting Chris Hemsworth on the cover too 

(yikes)! 

PS. Congrats to Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes from Pnau for winning "Band of the Year"
(I think you might find them hidden somewhere on the Wall of Sound...!) 

MJx

Inside Out Summer Entertaining Special

"Don't underestimate the importance of good music. You can really set the mood for the 

evening —whether it is relaxed or upbeat, music is the key to a good party."

The Inside Out Summer Entertaining Special is now out and is chock-full of goodness.

Like the above tip from Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edwina McCann; it's her advice when posed the question—What does every fabulous soiree need? And I couldn't agree more.

Another great tip, and alongside Edwina on page 20, is the 'Editor's pick' for the summer 

Shopping + News guide, and oh looky there is a sneaky pic of WALL of SOUND!

MJx

Belle Magazine Dec/Jan 2012-13

"Marika Järv is the designer behind PrintDolls who started the craze for tram-roll art. 

Her new work, 'Wall of Sound', is inspired by a vinyl album."

Big thanks to Belle's Managing Editor Tanya Buchanan for including the Wall of Sound 

in her 'Belle Inbox—Note to self: Must put these events and pieces top of the list'.

The latest issue of Belle: The Holiday Issue, has one of the most gorgeous covers ever!

(I'm a sucker for anything neon coral at the moment!)

So fun and colourful—and how cool are the bespoke walls tiles by designer

Jonathan Adler (co-owner of the Shelter Island home featured). 

There are some truly fabulous homes on show in this month's issue;  

below is a little sneak peek of my favourites.

MJx

Sunday Loves Wall of Sound

What was on the Sunday Magazine's Sunday Loves wishlist this week?

Why, the "music lovers delight" WALL of SOUND was of course!

(Thanks Meg Mason x)

And the super-smart are snapping them up for Xmas already.

(I wish I could be that organised *sigh*)

MJx

Create Design Awards 2012

The winners of the 2012 Create Design Awards were announced in the October issue of 

Desktop magazine and, proudly for me, the WALL of SOUND Gold Record 

was awarded a Highly Commended in the Print Creative category!

Considering I was delighted to just be short-listed, the extra bit of recognition made my week!

Yipeeeeeee!!!

MJx

WALL of SOUND ~ Gold Record

WALL of SOUND - Gold Record | by Marika Järv

Across the world, the music industry awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold - the most recognised being gold or platinum records. The amount of units needing to be sold differs from country to country based on population. In Australia, the ARIA awards a Gold Record to those albums which have shipped 35,000 copies, whereas in the UK this figure is 100,000 and in the US it's 500,000.

The WALL of SOUND - Gold Record, as a dear friend of mine recently described it, is quite simply...... GOLD! (Actually he used another adjective in front of gold - but that's not for repeating  here *snicker*). Debossed and foil stamped with a light reflecting, metallic foil, when the sunlight catches this deluxe print it glistens and gleams and makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over.

Oh, and it was also recently shortlisted* in the 2012 Create Design Awards for the Print Creative category - and yes I am just a little bit chuffed!

MJx

*(UPDATE: It actually won a HIGHLY COMMENDED!!!)

Desktop Magazine

WALL of SOUND - Gold Record makes a little editorial debut in this month's Desktop magazine.

Desktop is a design culture mag aimed at the graphics/advertising community, but well worth a look for anyone interested in a variety of creative fields—and it's printed on that gorgeous uncoated matte paper stock which I do so love in a magazine!

WALL of SOUND - Black Vinyl

WALL of SOUND - Black Vinyl | by Marika Järv

I love music. I especially love music festivals.
Easy-listening classic rock of the 70's. Grunge from the 90's.

I will even admit I have a soft spot for bad 80's music, and know all the words to all those tragic tunes. 

(but hey what 30-40-something-year-old gal doesn't?—it was what we grew up listening to!)

Several years ago I was searching online for some cool new mashups, and I came across an ingeniously titled track: "BoyGeorgeMichaelJacksonBrowne". I thought that was pretty clever—and for some amusement started to conjure up more and more interlinking names (coincidently about 6 months later my favourite radio station Triple J started playing a similar game "Band Sausage" on their breakfast show). Then one day I came to the realisation that put down in words, my silly little distraction could make a pretty interesting print for all us music fanatics—and so was born
 WALL of SOUND. 

For those of you who don't know, the "Wall of Sound" is a music production technique developed by record producer Phil Spector in the early 1960's (those big, dense, layered sounds you hear pumping through your stereo at times, are probably owed to him). 

WALL of SOUND, as in by me however, is a series of limited edition prints (only 100 available!) dreamt up in homage to musical artists from around the world. Over the course of 5 years, I spent weeks upon weeks, if not months upon months, interlinking more than 500 names together, which were then eventually put down on paper and formed into a spiral to mimic the continuous groove of an old vinyl record. Printed on a gorgeous, heavy-weight (550gsm), fine-art paper imported from Italy, and using the traditional techniques of debossing and foil stamping, the first piece in the series is the aptly named 'Black Vinyl' (in obvious reference to the classic old vinyl record). 

Ahhhh vinyl records—before the digital age of iTunes; before MP3's; before mini-discs;
before CD's; heck even before my childhood staple, the good old audio cassette tape!
(oh long-lost cassettes.... don't they bring back mixtape memories?)

MJx

photos by Matt Russell & Marika Järv